1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which transfers the energy of a rear end collision of an automotive vehicle away from a storage compartment area located at the rear end section of the vehicle.
2. Disclosure Information
A typical rear end section of an automotive vehicle includes a storage compartment area surrounded by a plurality of interior body panel members. This storage compartment area can, for example, include the trunk area, a fuel tank storage area, a rear axle storage area or the like.
During a rear end collision of the vehicle, longitudinal loads are applied to the rear of the vehicle directed against the storage compartment area. As used herein, longitudinal loads mean those loads which act generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. These longitudinally applied loads may compromise the available area in the storage compartment space resulting in undesirable effects on the vehicle. It would therefore be desirable to direct the energy of the longitudinally applied loads away from the storage compartment area of the vehicle.
One known way of absorbing the energy of a rear end collision has been to use energy absorbing bumpers. Generally, these bumpers include flexible polymeric materials and plastic foams which dissipate the energy of the contact before it can be transferred to the vehicle body structure. Energy absorbing bumpers work well in applications involving longitudinal loads of small magnitude. However, when the longitudinal load exceeds a predetermined magnitude, the energy absorbing bumper can no longer fulfill its intended function of absorbing the energy from the load.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,342 proposes an energy absorbing system for an automotive vehicle wherein a shoe provided in front of each front wheel or at the rear of each rear wheel absorbs the energy of a collision. The shoe deforms plastically under the imposition of a load to absorb a part of the energy involved in the collision. However, since the shoe deforms plastically to absorb the energy, the storage compartment area located at the rear of the vehicle may still be subjected to loads having a magnitude which could compromise the available space of the storage area. The system of the '342 simply absorbs the energy of a collision and does not direct the energy of the collision away from a predetermined area at the rear of the vehicle.
It would therefore be desirable to develop an apparatus which would transfer or direct the energy of a longitudinally applied load away from a predetermined storage compartment area of the rear of the vehicle to another, less critical part of the automotive vehicle such as one of the rear wheels of the vehicle.